Harassing Trump officials won't build blue wave: Guestview

Sarah Sanders expulsion from the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia was unfortunate, but it was a relatively mild incident compared to other recent displays of anti-Trump vitriol.

Mixing business and politics is a bad idea. (Ask the NFL.) Did Red Hen co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson have the right to ask Ms. Sanders to leave? Conservatives should argue she did, on the same grounds that Christian baker Jack Phillips could refuse service to those whose views he found objectionable. But was it a good business decision for Red Hen to alienate red America? Probably not. If the restaurant was on Manhattan’s upper west side it might not matter, but in the Trump-friendly Shenandoah Valley it does. Supporters of the president will simply go elsewhere to get their "Trout Grenobloise" with "Parsnip Puree."

The Red Hen imbroglio was nothing compared to the squawking coming from elsewhere in the liberal barnyard. Robert De Niro set the tone at the Tony Awards when he said “It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump.’ It’s f___ Trump.” Wanda Sykes Tweeted an f-bomb at Ivanka Trump after Samantha Bee called her a “feckless c___.” Kathy Griffin called first lady Melania Trump a “feckless complicit piece of s____.” Peter Fonda went on a bizarre Twitter rant in which he suggested ripping “Barron Trump from his mother's arms and [putting] him in a cage with pedophiles." Canadian TV writer Pat Dussault added, “Don't worry, we're coming for Chloe, too,” referring to Donald Trump, Jr.’s four-year-old daughter. Some of them walked back or apologized for their comments, but not all of them.

Meanwhile a woman said to be a Congressional intern yelled “Mr. President F___ You” as Trump walked through the Capitol rotunda. And Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielson was heckled at a restaurant and at her home by a group led by Allison Hrabar, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and an employee of the Justice Department. Hrabar later said that every public official should be targeted for this type of treatment and none of them should “have peace.” For some strange reason this radical bully is still employed by the U.S. government.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D- California, praised the “no peace, no sleep” protests and called for stepping up the confrontations. “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up and if you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station,” she told a throng of roaring supporters, “you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” This kind of incitement is just a shot away from bloodshed.

But there are some cooler heads. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, said Red Hen should have served Sarah Sanders, and blamed President Trump for creating a hostile atmosphere. The liberal Washington Post editorialized against Red Hen, arguing that if this sort of behavior becomes normalized then all sides will suffer. “How hard is it to imagine,” the editors asked, “people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?” If we go down that road, Democracy dines in darkness.

Democrats should also understand that these public tantrums and other slights are simply bad politics. Voters don’t respond well to angry chanting losers harassing people, or to vulgar celebrities, or to threats verging on intimidation and violence. There is nothing inspirational about it, and it makes the targets of the anger look that much more reasonable. If Democrats think this crazed behavior will generate a “blue wave” in November, they are mistaken.

It is beneficial to maintain a healthy division between the public and private. Simply having First Amendment rights to hector and insult public figures online or in public doesn’t mean it is a good idea. A return to decorum would be a useful step towards restoring the notion of a personal sphere and promoting a more rational tone in our policy debates. Come on Democrats, try raising the bar.

James S. Robbins is author of "Erasing America: Losing Our Future by Destroying Our Past," andd has taught at the National Defense University and the Marine Corps University and served as a special assistant in the office of the secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration. Follow him on Twitter: @James_Robbins.